The Flight Facilities Guide to Australia

It was Australia Day on Monday. The day where Aussie's come together to cook some shrimp on the barbie, shorten as many words as possible and drink Foster's, right? If you've ever had trouble deciphering exactly what it is that happens in the land down under - you're not alone. Being an Australian myself, there's certainly a few myths that need to be extinguished.

It was Australia Day on Monday. The day where Aussie's come together to cook some shrimp on the barbie, shorten as many words as possible and drink Foster's, right? If you've ever had trouble deciphering exactly what it is that happens in the land down under - you're not alone. Being an Australian myself, there's certainly a few myths that need to be extinguished. However there's some quality traditions and personalities worth sharing too, and who better to help me do so than the dynamic duo that is Flight Facilities.

Hugo Gruzman and James Lyell have been belting out warming tunes at clubs and festivals around the world since 2010. Things kicked off with their infectious single 'Crave You' and they've been on a steady path to success ever since. One moment that solidified that success was their work with Kylie Minogue.

"It came about more as a case of if you don't ask, you don't get. So we were lucky our management reached out. We got to work with her in studio and we ended the session by dancing around to 'You Make My Dreams Come True' by Hall & Oates. It was a pretty cool experience."

Late last year Flight Facilities released their debut album Down To Earth via Future Classic. Perfectly timed for summer in the Southern Hemisphere, the album is guaranteed to make you feel good. It's god damn fun, and so are they.

I spoke with the duo whilst they were watching the final moments of the Kyrgios vs. Murray tennis match on TV in Byron Bay (lovers of sport, how fitting). So here it is, the Flight Facilities Guide to Australia. A combined effort from Hugo and James:

Aussie Slang

Everything has to be two syllables. If it's one it has to be two, if it's three it has to be two. Then you chuck and 'e' or an 'o' on the end of it. That's pretty much it.

Foster's Beer

Foster's Beer is an intriguing one because we don't actually drink it. I think Foster's beer is like Jimeoin. He's this Irish comedian who comes over to Australia and if you ever go over to Ireland and say 'Oh, Jimeoin's great', everyone is like 'Who's Jimeoin?'. Foster's is England's thing. It's owned by the English so we really can't claim it.

John Paul Young

He's a true blue Aussie, the guy that you want to meet you when you're getting off the plane. He has a farm, a couple of chickens, the accent to match and some incredible stories that not every Australian would have. We went to make a track with him and it's still a work in progress but we got to stay out in Newcastle and work with him for a couple of days. He was telling us stories, it was a really cool time. We were doing an encore of 'Love Is In The Air' pretty much every night on our latest tour and we actually got him to come out and do the Sydney one with us. He's an absolute legend. He turned up 20 minutes before, wearing his tux and was all ready to go. He got the biggest reaction of the night, and stole the show.

Mr. Squiggle

Mr. Squiggle is a classic Australian children's show. He's a puppet with a pencil for a nose, kind of like Pinocchio's cousin. I love Mr. Squiggle. Do you know what shattered my childhood though? Do you know why he did the upside down thing? Because the puppeteer was standing behind and looking down at Mr. Squiggle and drawing his thing. So if you think about the point of view the puppeteer was drawing from, that's why it was upside down.

(Mr. Squiggle debate ensues between Hugo and James as to why it was upside down.)

He is a little bit creepy though. He had like bedroom eyes the entire time. It wasn't creepy at the time, but it feels a bit creepy now.

Caramello Koalas

A delicious Cadbury chocolate in the shape of a koala. You need to eat the caramel belly off it first, it's some weird ritual. We grew up thinking they'd created this incredible jingle to go with the Caramello Koala, only to later find out that it was stolen from Donovan's 'Mellow Yellow'.

Australian Politics

I'm pretty sure someone dropped the C-bomb on someone a while back which probably says enough. Oh and do you remember that time Kevin Rudd got caught on camera eating his own ear wax? That's probably the single weirdest thing to come out of Australian parliament.

Triple J

No other country I know has a radio station like it. I mean BBC is probably the closest relation to it, but the community base on Triple J makes such a difference. We went to their 40th Birthday festival the other day and there was such a happy atmosphere, it promotes goodwill in general. Triple J 'Unearthed' is a big element too, the fact that the labels aren't controlling everything like they used to means you can get your song heard on the radio (if people like it enough). Triple J picked up our song 'Crave You' amidst the internet hype and that helped us a lot. That was back in the 'Super Request' days, Richard Kingsmill played it a bit and people just kept voting for it.

Shane Warne

Pre SMS days? He's the best bowler of all time. I really like Warney. For all the stuff he's done, I can't hate him. He's been pretty weird, fat and disgusting and now he looks like a creepy mannequin and he still picked up Liz Hurley. If he can do all that and still spin ball his way into Liz Hurley then I'm pretty stoked on that.

Well, if that's not the best quote about Shane Warne and Liz Hurley I've ever heard, then I don't know what is. After reading the above, it's probably quite obvious now as to why Flight Facilities named their debut album Down To Earth. Just two relaxed dudes mixing magnificent music. Their new single and the title track from their debut album will be released in March and word on the street is, it's something to look forward to. "It will probably be one of our favourites to date. I know we have a lot of videos but this one is extra special. There's a very special guest in it but we're not going to give it away yet," said Lyell.

They've got it all figured out, these two. March is when it starts heating up on the other side of the world, what crowd pleasers they are. "I feel like with an album it never feels like the dust settles until about nine months later. We always need it to run through both sets of seasons to see how it goes, some things take ages to pick up on. You never know when it's going to hit and when it's going to miss," said Gruzman.

Modest too. Find yourself a spot in the sunshine, grab a beer (not Foster's) and revel in the ease of it all.